Redemption Ark (Revelation Space Series #3) [NOOK Book]

Overview

This stunning sequel to Revelation Space begins late in the twenty-sixth century. The human race has advanced enough to accidentally trigger alien machines designed to detect intelligent life--and destroy it.

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Overview

This stunning sequel to Revelation Space begins late in the twenty-sixth century. The human race has advanced enough to accidentally trigger alien machines designed to detect intelligent life--and destroy it.

Editorial Reviews

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The Barnes & Noble Review
You want space opera? You got it! Alastair Reynolds's Redemption Ark, the shelf-bending sequel to his debut novel Revelation Space, can only be described as colossal. Taking place approximately half a century after the events in Revelation Space, this ambitious epic pits the Demarchists (normal humans) against the Conjoiners -- Borg-like, genetically enhanced humans who have experimented with cybernetically assisted direct mind-to-mind communications. After a nano-disease called the Melding Plague knocked humanity back into a near dark age decades earlier, the war between human factions has become the focus of humanity all over the galaxy. But when the Inhibitors, ( a seemingly unstoppable alien race of self-replicating black machines that could wipe out humanity once and for all) reappears, the war is suddenly not such a priority for the few who know about the invaders.

Humanity's last hope may lay in the hands of Neil Clavain, a legendary military leader whose mission is to recover a stolen cache of hell-class weapons, doomsday devices that were built in the earliest days of the Conjoiners and were judged to be so dangerous that the knowledge of how to construct them was suppressed. The cache is traced to the Resurgam system, but Clavain isn't the only one looking for the weapons…

Reynolds's series, which also includes the related novel Chasm City, is reminiscent of Frederik Pohl's Hugo- and Nebula-winning Heechee saga in both scope and quality. Fans who like their science fiction hard and on a grandiose scale will delight in Reynolds's high-tech, ultra-complex universe. Paul Goat Allen

Publishers Weekly

With this complex, thoughtful sequel to his highly praised Revelation Space (2001), British author Reynolds confirms his place among the leaders of the hard-science space-opera renaissance. Spreading from star to star, humanity has split into different, competing factions. Late in the 26th century, the group-mind Conjoiners are defeating their main rivals, the Demarchists. Unfortunately, the Conjoiners' space exploration has attracted the notice of an ancient swarm of machines that calls itself the Inhibitors and that exists to destroy all biological intelligence. The Conjoiners don't believe they can fight this new foe, so they intend to run away and let the Inhibitors wipe out the other human tribes. One Conjoiner warrior, the centuries-old Clavain, rebels against this heartless tactic, but he must negotiate with a fragmented, distrustful mob of possible allies while pursued by his former cohorts. The novel forces readers to process an outrageous amount of information-but that's only fair, since the characters are challenged to do the same. As they extend themselves outward, they also have a chance to gain more understanding of themselves as human beings and more ability to interact meaningfully. It's rare to find a writer with sufficient nerve and stamina to write novels that are big enough to justify using words like "revelation" and "redemption." Reynolds pulls it off. (June 3) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

In the 27th century, the expansion of the human race as well as its capacity for intelligence has exceeded its boundaries and has triggered the approach of the Inhibitors, intelligent machines with one directive-to find and destroy sentient life. The only hope of averting the end of intelligent life in the universe lies in the recovery of a hidden cache of weapons of mass destruction. Set against a background of interstellar warfare between two factions of humans, the Conjoiners and the Demarchists, Reynolds's sequel to Chasm City features intense personal drama and large-scale scenes of space warfare. Told with skill and an attention to detail, this space opera series belongs in most sf collections. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

From the Publisher

"Reynolds confirms his place among the leaders of the hard-science space-opera renaissance." ---Publishers Weekly Starred Review

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Meet the Author

Alastair Reynolds was born in Barry, South Wales, in 1966. He studied at Newcastle and St. Andrew's Universities and has a Ph.D. in astronomy. A former astrophysicist for the European Space Agency, he lives in the Netherlands, near Leiden. He is now writing full-time.

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Top notch space opera

Another great novel by Alastair Reynolds. He's becoming one of my favorite writers. If you don't appreciate this book and the Revelation Space series then space opera probably isn't your genre. This book is really fun.

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Anonymous

Posted September 29, 2013

there are three books in the series and all are excellent

just read the entire series, such a gifted writer.

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Anonymous

Posted June 17, 2013

What a world maker

This book challenged and engaged me. I highly recommend to all sci-fi fans.

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PSI

Posted January 4, 2013

Hang in there, it gets better

Was expecting a better reading experience... The jarring transitions between plot lines reminded me of the jumpy editing in later Star Wars films. It also didn't help that my Nook edition of Redemption Ark was poorly formatted, often without even a line break to indicate chapters - I had to keep checking back in the text to remind myself which solar system we were in at the moment! All that said, you must read this book in order to understand Absolution Gap, and that's a REALLY enjoyable story.

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Anonymous

Posted November 17, 2012

If you like Revelation Space

A good read, i made the mistake of trying to read Chasm City before this one thinking it was a necesarry sequel, even though the chapters about Sky Hausman or however you spell it are interesting it almost killed the trilogy for me. But this book brought me back into his amazing univers of inhibitors, demarchists, conjoiners and even pattern jugglers! Im going to start the finaly now!

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Anonymous

Posted December 17, 2011

Best since Isanov

Been a long time since I have been unable to put a book down!!!! This is true Science Fiction!!!!

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Anonymous

Posted October 30, 2011

Excellent read

Best hard science sci-fi out there

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9409771

Posted November 29, 2010

Solid book.

You can start here if you must. But the first really does a good job of setting this story up. This story is a greater exploration of his universe.

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Revelation Space Series #2

Chris said the books are very good. They grabbed his attention and held it until the end. He really looks forward to reading the other books in the series.

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Anonymous

Posted July 20, 2004

Dark and Glorious Space Opera

The Cojoiners and Demarchists are slugging their way to the conclusion of a long war when the Cojoiners learn of a threat to all humanity. Machines called the Inhibitors are approaching from the dark reaches of space, intent on wiping out space-faring life. The Cojoiners make plans to protect themselves by launching a mission to retrieve a long-lost cache of hellish weapons. But one of their military experts, Clavain, believes that all of humanity deserves to know about the threat. Clavain launches his own operation to retrieve the weapons and is soon in a desperate race against his former allies. But it¿s not going to be a simple race ¿ the weapons are being held in the Delta Pavonis system by the damaged ship Nostalgia for Infinity. The dread machines are already there and are in the process of taking apart the entire system. The much-reduced crew of the ship is working on a plan to evacuate the planet before the Inhibitors can complete their work, a plan that includes their own use of the powerful weapons. Although it¿s not immediately obvious, Redemption Ark is a sequel to Reynolds¿s first novel, Revelation Space. A dark space opera with a grand scale and realistic science, the book has an interesting film-noir feel. None of the characters are entirely sympathetic and this future is definitely not a shiny feel-good place. However, it is full of fascinating technology and interesting people. The characterization is fairly good - definitely more than one-dimensional, although sometimes the motivations seem a little off. Redemption Ark suffers a bit from middle-book malady. While it¿s action packed and chock full of challenging concepts, the ending is disappointing ¿ it feels rushed, nothing is really resolved, and you¿re stuck waiting for the next book. There are also several points where the book builds up to what should be frenzied action sequences and then instead of the actual action, you get a passive recap that throws a wrench into the pacing. However, I do like the universe that Reynolds has created and I¿m looking forward to the sequel.

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Anonymous

Posted June 7, 2004

Amazing - Can't Put It Down

This is an amazing piece of work. For those sci-fi lovers who want action, suspense, real science behind the story, real thought behind what life in the 28th century would be like, interesting characters and a huge plot fed by interesting sub-plots...hey, this one's for you. I haven't read something this good in a long time.

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Anonymous

Posted June 16, 2004

Thinking person's space opera

Colliding galaxies, super-weapons, human civil war, artificial intelligence, lethal aliens, genetically engineered pigs - all blended into a highly coherent and enthralling narrative. My only criticism is that as volume two of a trilogy, it does not really stand alone - one pretty much has to read Revelation Space.

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hard core futuristic outer space action thriller

Light years ago, the Inhibitors feared intelligent species and built machines to stop any from developing. These killing machines traveled the universe to destroy intelligent life. Eons later, the machines must have failed as intelligent species have arisen including humans advancing throughout the cosmos. <P>Late in the twentieth-sixth century, the human crew of the Infinity learns why a sentient race suddenly vanished, but the crew also innocently rouse the Inhibitors. The death killing machines turn towards mankind for total annihilation. Planets are eradicated to tap into the raw material to build a doomsday destruction device never seen before by humanity. As humans compete and even kill one another to escape the coming genocide, only war criminal Clavain seems remotely capable of stopping what looks like human extinction. <P>Though there is a bit of the middle novel syndrome to REDEMPTION ARK, fans of hard core futuristic outer space action thrillers based on scientific theory will relish this Reynolds universe tale. The exciting story line picks up about fifty years after the events of REVELATION SPACE, but for the most part can stand on its own though reading the debut novel first is recommended. The key human characters are fully developed and make the audience believe that they the readers too are part of a doomed future because the Inhibitors seem so authentic. Those fans who want premium outer space adventure will peruse Alastair Reynolds¿s powerful two novels and its companion but independent tale, CHASM CITY, as well as some related short stories. This will have to satiate the audience until book three is released next year. <P>Harriet Klausner

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